Doing nothing, non-action or not forcefully acting is one of Lao-Tzu’s well-known teachings. We mistakenly think this is akin to being lazy, and doing absolutely nothing. What Lao-Tzu means is that we should not do anything that is not in accordance with Tao. It means swimming with the tide, and not against it.
If a river has to cross a mountain, it goes around it, rather than blowing the mountain in pieces to carve out a path. There are always comfortable and natural ways of doing things that don’t disrupt anything else.
535
3.39K reads
The idea is part of this collection:
Learn more about personaldevelopment with this collection
Understanding the psychological rewards of bad habits
Creating new habits to replace old ones
Developing self-discipline
Related collections
Similar ideas to Lao Tzu: The Action In Inaction
Read & Learn
20x Faster
without
deepstash
with
deepstash
with
deepstash
Personalized microlearning
—
100+ Learning Journeys
—
Access to 200,000+ ideas
—
Access to the mobile app
—
Unlimited idea saving
—
—
Unlimited history
—
—
Unlimited listening to ideas
—
—
Downloading & offline access
—
—
Supercharge your mind with one idea per day
Enter your email and spend 1 minute every day to learn something new.
I agree to receive email updates